Guarani stingless-bee ethnospecies, traditional management, and perceived threats: a systematic scoping review from the Atlantic Forest

Abstract Stingless bees (Meliponini) are important Neotropical pollinators but remain underrepresented in Brazilian conservation policy. We conducted a PRISMA-ScR-guided systematic scoping review of published and grey literature on Guarani Mbya and Kaiowá stingless-bee ethnospecies, perceived threats, and traditional management in the Atlantic Forest and associated agrofrontiers. Five studies published between 2005 and 2021 met the inclusion criteria; a multilingual update in July 2026 identified no additional eligible study. We recorded 24 hymenopteran ethnospecies entries, including 22 Meliponini and two wasps excluded from Meliponini-specific interpretation. The primary sources rarely documented Guarani-specific diagnostic traits or voucher specimens, so Linnaean correspondences were treated as putative. Selective honey harvesting synchronised with lunar or brood cycles was reported in all studies, nest translocation in four, and hive placement at crop-forest ecotones in three. Principal perceived threats were habitat loss associated with soybean expansion, pesticide drift, and replacement of native forest by eucalyptus plantations or commercial logging. The small and methodologically uneven evidence base limits taxonomic and conservation inference. Future research should combine community-governed documentation of emic criteria with appropriate taxonomic validation and colony-health monitoring. Implications for insect conservation The review provides a transparent baseline for participatory research and conservation planning while identifying evidence gaps in the published record on Guarani knowledge of stingless bees.